In order to hang up luminaires in many cases the luminaire housing is suspended by way of two or four cables from a ceiling or another horizontal carrier, the cables engaging the body of the luminaire in mutually spaced relationship. The associated cable holder points are mostly arranged in the region of the ends of the luminaire housing so that they are at the greatest possible spacing from each other. In that case the cable holder point is the substantially punctiform region of the cable at which the load of the luminaire housing is transmitted to the cable, that is to say the point at which the luminaire housing including the cable suspension arrangement engage the respective cable for transmission of the load involved. The cable suspension arrangement itself in that case is connected to the luminaire with an associated fixing region having a center which is defined by virtue of the fact that, in the case of a symmetrical, that is to say ideal, distribution of weight on both sides of the housing which are defined by the connecting line of the cable holder points of the luminaire, the center of gravity of the luminaire is on the connecting line of the cable holder points and therefore the luminaire is suspended exactly horizontally. The center of the fixing region of the suspension arrangement is thus arranged in the central plane of the housing.
The term cable suspension arrangement of that kind, in accordance with the invention, is used to denote cable suspension arrangements which are generally suspended by a strand-shaped elongate suspension element, this term also being used in accordance with the invention to denote wires or the like. In addition, the cable can be of differing diameters in different transverse directions relative to the direction of the longitudinal extent thereof and can be for example in the manner of a band, in which case then the holder point is on the longitudinal center line of the band.
Suspension arrangements of that kind for hanging luminaires sometimes give rise to the problem that different distributions of weight on both sides of the luminaire cause the suspended luminaire to adopt an inclined position, which is unwanted. Asymmetrical distributions of weight of that kind may occur for example due to tolerances in the respective material thicknesses of the individual components, due to asymmetrical installation parts and/or due to assembly tolerances. Problems of that kind occur in particular in the case of dual-wing luminaires in which light means are arranged on both sides of a device carrier provided with cable suspension arrangements, so that luminaires of that kind are of a comparatively great width.
Such inclined positioning of the luminaire bodies can be avoided by balancing weights to be fixed separately to the luminaire, but determining the reference positions and the required weights for the balancing weights in order to provide that the luminaire is arranged horizontally is a comparatively laborious procedure.